One Function of Art

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

One Function of Art

I found the following quote from Anaïs Nin on the Internet and it struck me just how much it aligns with Ayn Rand's purpose in writing fiction: to create the perfect man.

To be sure, Nin was not after the perfect anything. She just wanted to live and breathe. But for Rand to present her perfect people, she had to create environments where they could live and breathe.

According to Nathaniel Branden, after she created Atlas Shrugged, she liked that world so much, she stepped into it and never came back.

This is what I find parallel with the thought in the quote by Anaïs Nin:

 

I could not live in any of the worlds offered to me — the world of my parents, the world of war, the world of politics. I had to create a world of my own, like a climate, a country, an atmosphere in which I could breathe, reign, and recreate myself when destroyed by living. That, I believe, is the reason for every work of art. 

-- Anaïs Nin

(From The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 5: 1947-1955.)

 

Man, the temptation to do the same is ever present in today's world.

Michael